>> michael: coming up right here as boston continues to dominate the headlines, the gun debate and the west texas explosion vie for what is left of cable new's attention span, and that ain't much. i'm michael shure. you are in "the war room." [♪ theme music ♪] >> michael: today in boston a memorial was held for slain mit police officer shawn callier, the event drew nows of students faculty and staff as well as law enforcement officials from across the country.

his brother said that sean was born to be a police officer, and he himself has learned from the tragedy. >> it's taught me that i want to be more like him, comfort someone when they are having a bad day, offer some time to help someone out, tell your parents that you love them for no other reason than you just do, hug your family members, all of us try something new, open up, square dance. and sean has two left feet so i was totally shocked by that one, just for the chance that you might meet some new friends and have life-long memories. sean has truly changed the way i want to live and as a police officer he would be proud. >> michael: so touching and so freakin' unfair. vice president joe biden was also at the service.

>> whether it's al qaeda central, or two twisted perverted cowardly knockoff jihadis here in boston why do they do what they do? i have thought about it a lot. because i deal with it a lot. and i have come to the conclusion that it is not unique to me but they do it to instill fair. >> michael: twisted perverted cowardly knockoff jihadis. the more we learn about the brother's plans, the more it looks like the vice president is right. dzhokhar tsarnaev has told police that they were planning to go to new york, but they were going there to party. i would love to hear what joe

biden had to say about that. and we also learned that the older brother brought firearms in february. they scanned his license. but that was store policy. there are no background checks on the type of explosive powder thought to be used in the bombings. and the fbi had no way of knowing he had bought the explosionives, democrats want to change that. yesterday harry reid introduced a bill to require background checks on anyone buying explosive powder. but it isn't just about explosives, the brother also had three guns tamerlan was somehow able to buy a gun even though he was on the federal government terrorist watch list. it's just amazing. in fact the gun bill that republicans doomed in the senate

last week would have closed that loophole that we thought it was just gun shows but it's the terrorist watch list as well. and since it failed selling guns to suspected terrorists is still legal in this country. and guess who has taken notice? terrorists. al qaeda spokesman alan ghaddan today this. >> in the west you have got a lot at your disposal. let's take america as an example. america is absolutely awash with easily obtainable firearms. you can go down to a gun show at the local convention center and come away with a fully automatic assault rifle without a background check and most likely without having to show an indication card. so what are you waiting for? >> michael: and the damn senate voted to allow this to continue. it's so frightening. even after the gun bill's

defeat, democrats are working to change the law to keep guns out of the hands of terris. joe manchin of west virginia said round two of his gun control bill will include language that closes the terror loophole. the democrats should get it done, and if republicans try to stop them, they should call them out for what they are accomplices to terror. joining me now is "boston globe" reporter scot lehigh. he comes to us from boston. scot thanks for joining us here in "the war room." >> thank you for having me. >> michael: you work for the "boston globe." there has been a furry of news coming out of your city but what has it been like in the news room as the papers covered this story? can you give us a sense of what the feel has been? >> there's a lot of energy. i work at the state house so i'm really all over the city in some

way. there's a lot of energy intensity, grief mourning how could this happen? a lot of curiosity and desire for answer about -- about whether there were security lapses and for some desire i think for some kind of greater look into that -- the security plans here. so the whole -- the whole gambit of motions today obviously with -- with the funeral for sean callier it was a hugely emotional day. i think the community in general feels pretty good about the way it has responded, kind of proud of itself, so it really has been a big gambit of emotion. >> michael: yeah, i think the country is pretty proud of how your city has handled it as well, but the tragedy really showed that even in the age of twitter, the world still needs real reporters on the scene and i looked at the "boston globe"

constantly, and saw great reporting coming out of your paper. what was your reaction to how this story played out on social media versus the papers? >> thank you for that. we feel good about what we have done. this is a big crisis on the watch of our new editor and i think everyone feels like we have come through this quite well, and done a good job. you know -- excuse me -- give me -- the social media, you say how do i feel about that? >> michael: yeah. >> there was trafficking and a certain amount of rumor. that's almost inevitable. you have to run around and chase things down often in a situation like that. someone tweeted this or that and it's hard to know always what -- what is most reliable in that stuff, so it's a real bad situation to -- a tricky situation too, but we're journalists. >> michael: exactly.

did do you find yourself now actually chasing down twitter reports to see if in fact they are true? >> i write a column so i have a little different job, and a little different perspective, but there was this huge wash of information coming in, and i think there was a lot of -- there did -- there was a lot of sorting through. i mean you saw, obviously, some of the cable networks went with things earlier than they should have that turned out not to be accurate, and had to back off ieft little bit. and there is a real sense that -- what is your level -- do you want to get caught up in that? and i think in general i think we feel pretty good about the judgments we made. >> michael: and i think everyone who reads your paper feels the same way. last monday when it all happened, we had you booked scot to talk about the massachusetts senate campaign,

so this is our rain check. it was suspended, and now it is up and running again. a new poll shows markey leading by 6 points in that race. can lynch still make up the difference? >> i'm a little skeptical about those numbers. there has been huge distract shuns, and big snow storms blizzards that shut the city down, that said i don't feel like it's a six-point race. and watching the lynch campaign they are lurching around a little bit like a fighter who is behind on points and knows he has to land a knockout punch. my sense it will go markey by a

comfortable margin, but you never know. lynch is very feisty and has a good strong base. markey is a little bit more of a distant figure and washington insider, and kind of a hard to listen to order, but i think he has put the pieces of the democratic coalition together in a way that make me think he probably will win this. i think lynch has -- he sort of flip flopped into more alignment with the progressive democratic primary voter, but it seemed a little opportunistic, and i'm not sure people are exactly thrilled. labor comes out enthusiastically for him, but if i'm betting i think markey will win. >> michael: lynch represents dorchester, the town where the little boy lived that was killed in boston.

so he has been seen a little bit more because of that. does a republican have a chance of winning this seat scot? >> not a convening shun republican, i do not believe. we have three republicans in here, mike sullivan is running. he is a social conservative who is running in a way to say even though i'm a social conservative, i'm also an federal equatist. gomez is an interesting candidate. he's more of a moderate first timer latino. i think that he would be an interesting candidate. we don't really know that much about him other than his campaign has been very short. and then there is dan winzlow.

he is more the profile of the massachusetts republican who has done well in recent elections in modern massachusetts. so i think he would have a shot if he won, but i'm not sure he has a shot to win the primary, but i think he could be competitive in a general election particularly against lynch. >> michael: one of the candidates that you mentioned is michael sullivan, a onetime acting director for the atf. he said this quote . . . and he didn't think requiring background checks for all gun show sales would accomplish much. do you think this could become a major issue for him? >> in he were to win the republican nomination, i think that's a real liability. both of the other candidates

have come out at least for background checks. michael has done some personal work, and i have to say i think the language he uses sounds awfully close to the language -- the talking points of the different gun lobby organizations. so i feel like he is saying look, my spot in the primary is with the conservatives and the pro-gun crowd, and i don't want to move off of that but i do believe that would be a big liability. i was amazed. i cited to him a study by his very agency that showed that gun shows were a big problem, and he wasn't familiar with it. and when i read some of the quotes, he dismissed the study from his own agency, and said well there are other studies that show that is not true. >> michael: that's interesting. i have got to go scot but i was just about to say i love talking

to you and i want to follow this campaign with you the rest of the way. that's again, "boston globe" reporter scot lehigh, and we turn now from the bombings in boston to the tragedy in texas. 15 people have died from the fertilizer explosion in west texas last week 200 more are injured. the blast left a crater over 90 feet wide and 40 feet deep. they are looking into why federal inspectors failed to see this coming. according to "the nation" magazine managers failed to notify the epa that they had 270 tons of a known explosive. and they said there were no fire and explosive risk. and now irony of ironies, texas's anti-regulation,

anti-big government crusaders are up in arms. of course they are. they are actual ali requesting help from the federal government. just last week they voted against the bill to increase funding to fema which is responding to the tragedy. since 2009 fema has responded to more disasters in texas than any other state, and yet senator would still cut their funding. and even though he now wants assistance, last year when sandy slammed into the northeast, and representatives asked for help cruz released a statement saying quote . . . to call senator cruz a shameless two-faced hypocrite would be an insult to all of the shameless two-faced hypocrites that have come before him.

so let's just say we respectfully disagree with the senator from texas. they are at it again, the koch brothers are hatching more schemes. our own pesky kid david sirota will help us foil them again. and our second cartoon villain is up for reelection and there isn't an progressive in the country that doesn't want to beat the garter sox off of him. and later our third cartoon villain is turning a popularity turn around act. it's wednesday. you are in "the war room," and we will be right back. ♪

>> michael: yesterday the career website, careercast.com released its list of best and worst jobs of 2013 at the very bottom of the list of 200 was newspaper reporter. the newspaper business as a whole is not a particularly lucrative entity either. then why in the world are the billionaire koch brothers considering buying the tribune eight major newspapers. they want to shift the country towards a smaller government

with fewer regulations and lower taxes. they have a three-prong strategy, including educating grassroots activists, influencing politics, and buying media. if they succeed in the bid, papers like the l.a. times, and "chicago tribune" could serve as part of the right-wing agenda. could we be entering a new citizen citizen kaine era? joining us to talk about that is syndicated columnist david sirota. welcome back inside "the war room," david. >> thank you for having me. >> michael: what makes this so valuable to the koch brothers. >> the reports you put together was based on a "new york times" story. i bring that up, because much of the news today, because of the

changes in journalism much of the news is still based on the firsthand reporting of newspapers. so what the koch brothers see in the tribune company is not necessarily a company that can make big profits for koch industries unto itself, that is to say the eight newspapers that the tribune owns are not necessarily profit-making themselves, but what the koch brothers see is an instrument to influence the news from the ground up, from the place where news really happens, so that when stories in "the los angeles times" or the other papers that the tribune company owns, if they are skewed originally both in what they choose to be news and how they report that news then it stands to reason that television stories, what television reports will be skewed, what radio reports will be skew, and what even the internet outlet reports will be skewed. it skews the news.

if you can own a newspaper, you can skew the news in a very insidious, almost invisible kind of way. >> michael: so they invented this idea of reporting on the reports and now they want to control the reports themselves. is that what you are saying? >> that's exactly right. if you think about the news ecosystem, it is built more on newspaper reporting than ever. the argument is we have plenty of news outlets, there's tv internet, radio, but the issue is, most news is actually built off, again, piggybacking off original reporting from newspapers, and that's what the koch brothers want to buy. >> michael: so right there in your back door you have the denver post and publisher dean singleton. what is he doing to the news in denver? >> we have been an experiment in this. there used to be newspaper

competition here in this city and state. the rocky mountain news went out of business, so we are now living in essentially a newspaper monopoly situation, and dean singleton has in that position become more of what campaign and elections magazine calls a republican activist a local monthly magazine here notes that politicians need to come in front of dean singleton to make sure he supports their policies, or they run the risk of facing negative news coverage in the post. when you have competition with another newspaper, the other newspaper has to worry about skewing its story too much and being called out. when you are in a monopoly newspaper situation, that mean the local citizen kane can essentially infuse news coverage with that person's politics without fear of every being

called out. >> michael: that's an amazing thing. let's move on to another subject, that subject is david sirota. bill o'reilly took issue with your column last week with the headline let's hope the boston marathoner is a white american. here is his reaction. >> this is just appalling. this loon hopes a deranged american killed other americans so his own political agenda is not scrutinized. that is the tone in america today. >> i got a lot of hate mail about that. but what i wrote is that i hope the boston bombers -- i said i hope they end up being white non-islamic americans, because then we tend as a country not to

overreact with let's say presumptive war, and we tend not to collectively demonize the entire group. when an assailant is a muslim or not an american or foreigner or any combination of that we tend to blame the entire collective group. we have seen us go into presumptive wars like we did after 9/11, so i was saying i hope it ends up being a white non-muslim american because i didn't want to see us over react as we traditionally do. >> michael: and to your point, the house has announced they are going to conduct hearings into chechnian radically. . and this kind of reaction and reacting to a group is exactly what you are talking about. in light of the fact that

dzhokhar tsarnaev and his brother -- one was taken into custody, one was killed has your outlook changed at all? >> no what we have seen is that exactly what i hope hadn't happened has happened. we have seen fox news say we should increase mass surveillance of muslims, we have see the homeland security committee say we should increase surveillance of muslims. you would never see this reaction if this was a timothy mcveigh character or the white supremacist who walked into the sikh temple and shoot a number of sikh people. but when it's muslims, a minority, a person of color, or any combination, you see a very bigoted reaction and i think it

says a lot about where we are as a country. >> michael: david sirota is coming to us from denver. thanks so much. up next the president has all 20 female senators to the white house for dinner last night. and while i applaud his gesture, my question is how do we get more seats at the table. we'll talk to christine pelosi about that. she's up next, literally. ♪ (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

very, very excited about that and very proud of that.

>>beltway politics from inside the loop. >>we tackle the big issues here in our nation's capital, around the country and around the >>dc columnist and four time emmy winner bill press opens current's morning news block. >>we'll do our best to carry the flag from 6 to 9 every morning. ♪ >> michael: president obama will speak at planned parenthood this friday in washington, d.c. the day after the organization's annual gala. the event will honor los angeles mayor antonio villaraigosa sex therapist dr. ruth k. westheimer, and the hbo hit show "girls" creator lena dunham, as champions of women's health. planned parenthood definitely has its democratic bases

covered. planned parenthood president cecile richards, issued this statement . . . right-wingers are of course already outraged that president obama accepted planned parenthood's invitation. now it remains to be seen to what extent the president will comment on the ongoing battle for abortion rights. joining us here in the studio fresh from a baseball game is christine pelosi. christine chairs the california democratic party women's caucus and one of our favorite political pundits. first question, how is the game? >> well, tied up just like america. >> michael: exactly. do you see any controversy in the president's decision to attend the gala. >> i would suggest they read the article by dick skait who wrote when republicans were trying to defund planned parenthood, that

on this issue, republicans are dead wrong. he talked about his grandmother, and it said that 90% of their work has nothing to do with abortion. and all president obama needs to do is to quote dick skathe. >> michael: yeah, and maybe his answer is to just stay the course. frankly you would expect them to say these things and you would also expect the president to be there. what you wouldn't expect is to have 20 women senators to come to the white house for dinner, which they did not. here is amy talking about what hand last night. >> i would say what i took away from it was his continued emphasis on the need to come together on a budget deal the way the women have tended to

lead on a number of issues in the senate, and how the women can play a mayor role in bringing people together here to get a budget deal. >> michael: christine, i listened to the senator there, knowing that this is obviously the biggest number of women senator that have been in the senate. when you hear her speak there, do you agree that women have something different that makes them better at working across party lines, bridging the divide as she called it? >> i would say that women senator to get elected have to climb the double stair. succeed as professionals and confront gender stereo types. all of the polling tell us that a man can be unlikable and be qualified. women have to be likable and be qualified. so women at that high level of

the united states senate who to be elected means they have to have proven their ability, and that's why i think women do a great job when we decide to work together. look at the work we have talked about on military sexual trauma having 20 women in the senate and 7 women on the armed services committee, means you are going to have hearings on this topic and there will be action on topics that women work on. >> michael: that's a compelling point you make. what specifically can they do say in this budget impasse? what can women senator do differently to bridge the divide than just some male senator who doesn't have to be likable. >> well, we can continue to talk. we are so proud to have here california two fantastic women. the more that we talk about the

budget, the more we talk about making sure the budget is fair for everyone, particularly seniors, those who need the american safety net who tend to be more women than men, that is a way to help bring those values into the debate. i still have a button from the bush tax cuts because we were trying to get a child care tax cut during that time. and we got it done because the women made it happen. >> michael: which is important. who are your eyes on this cycle in terms of protecting seats and maybe even people who are up and coming that we don't know about? >> right now our focus of course is on the house we have a terrific woman candidate running in south carolina elizabeth colbert-busch, who hopefully will be elected next month. and i think you will see in that race the beginning of people

really taking a look at a strong woman who is able to have a public policy record, who can go out there in a tough campaign situation and win because she talks about her value system and the more women like that we have, the better off we'll do. >> and also the gift of mark sanford. this time they had a chance to send somebody else up against colbert-busch and it worked out that it was mark sanford, fantastic for colbert-busch. what about in the senate? >> mary landry just took a very courageous vote on background checks. and kay hagan, they are two very strong women who are likable, qualified, and more than deserving of being reelected.

>> not only is mary landrieu a democratic candidate from a red state, she is also up for reelection. and that shows what a gutty call that was to make that call a week and a half ago. susan collins, senator from maine, republican senator from maine. she's a pretty moderate -- maybe among the most moderate senator on the republican side right now. it is worth having her reelected from a standpoint of a woman is it worth having her reelected or a democrat. >> i want a familiar -- feminist elected every time. if your vote is going to make progress in women's lives then you are the candidate for me.

>> michael: so if it a democrat who is not talking about women's lives and women's progress then susan colin staying in the senate is better. >> yes. >> michael: thanks so much. christine pelosi get back to the ball game. thank you so much for being here in "the war room." it's time to get mitch or die trying. we'll introduce you to one of the candidates looking to unseat mitch mcconnell. then later these tragic pictures out of south carolina today where an attempt at humor ander reverence went horribly awry. the chain of events culminated in a politician standing next to a piece of cardboard that dwarf him. democrats are wrong, they know that i'm going to be the first

one to call them out. they can question whether i'm right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. >> "viewpoint" digs deep into the issues of the day. >> has the time finally come for real immigration reform? >> with a distinctly satirical point of view. if you believe in state's rights but still believe in the drug war you must be high. >> only on current tv.

you know who is coming on to me now? you know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials? those types are coming on to me all the time now. (vo) she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. >>ok, so there's wiggle room in the ten commandments, that's what you're saying. you would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. >>absolutely. >> and so would mitt romney. (vo) she's joy behar. >>and the best part is that current will let me say anything. what the hell were they thinking?

♪ >> michael: on the campaign front outside groups are turning up the heat on kentucky senator mitch mcconnell. he is obstructionist number one in washington and up for reelection next year. the gabby giffords backed group is using mcconnell blocking expand expanding background checks in a new radio ad. listen. >> we watched, we listened we felt it but senator mcconnell won't listen to us. 82% of kentuckyians support universal background checks but senator mcconnell voted against

them. >> michael: the only way to help president obama out in the senate may be to send mcconnell packing. some insiders believe that 34-year-old secretary of state, allison lundergan grooims may be the best candidate. >> i'm going to give it the due diligence that it deserves and that's making time with my family and with the supporters that helped to get me here to the office of secretary of state. >> michael: one candidate who is not i wasting any time throwing his hat into the ring businessman and air force veteran ed marksberry. he joins us from owensboro, kentucky. welcome. >> i can't see you but i hope you can see me. >> i can see you and hear your accent all the way from here.

you won the 2010 congressional race, and tell us what lesson you took from that. >> that is a great question, it was more what the democrats in general learned. we didn't get any support nationally, but what we wanted to do was run a truthful campaign that was back to the grassroots where we would reenergize the volunteers the people that come out and help get these officials elected. i have ran campaigns before when wr -- where i helped out. and i watched how the democrats were adopting the republican play book and it was all about how much money you can raise. and i felt like they took the ownership away from those who helped get them elected. and we went out and actually talked and listened to the people. so what i learned from it is a

couple of things. number 1 is that people are eager for a democrat in kentucky to run as a democrat not act like a republican. the second thing is, it is about raising money, but also it is about raising the issues and the energy we need for volunteers to want to get behind. here in kentucky people are tired or the career politicians. they are tired of the same thing that they hear from washington. we all know that kentucky is one of the poor estates, not only in income, or healthcare college graduates, you name it we rank so far below, and here we have the senior leader of the republican party how do they elect their leadership when this guy has done nothing for our state. so to answer your question, the things i learned most is this we're going to try a different approach, and that's why we came out with a good campaign song to get people's attention that are

no longer listening because they feel like they don't have a voice. >> michael: mccownal mccownal -- mcconnell is being attacked on his gun vote. take a listen to that song you alluded to. ♪ they refused to address the lbgt marriage bill ♪ ♪ what kind of world have we made for our children ♪ ♪ is there any way we can stop all of this killing ♪ ♪ yeah, yeah ♪ >> michael: that is an unusual -- unusual song for a -- for a kentucky senate race, so it's compelling. can that song's message resinate where other efforts have failed? >> absolutely. i coined that phrase the slaughter gun, because today's argument isn't about taking away

guns, it's what do we do to make it safer for the public out there. that was a gimme vote. it was about safety for the public. and then there's the domestic arms race. you used to buy a hunting gun for sporting event, but after the assault weapons ban went down, you see this explosion of assault weapons, they are slaughter weapons, folks. and that's why i coined the term slaughter guns. >> michael: ed marksberry, anyone who is going run against the -- the minority leader of the senate somebody as entrenched as mitch mcconnell has a tall tax ahead of them, but you seem suited for it. we wish you the best because we

want to see this guy lose. thank you ed marksberry. >> right. you are going to really enjoy it. thank you. >> michael: thank you, sir. up next brett ehrlich looks and sifts through a crowded field and lets us know who is currently the world's most embarrassing republican. >> coming up mark sanford debates a cardboard cutout. don't go away. >> jack, how old are you? >> nine. >> this is what 27 tons of marijuana looks like. (vo) with award winning documentaries that take you inside the headlines, way inside. (vo) from the underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current.

♪ >> michael: to los angeles we go to the set of "the young turks," cenk uygur how are you doing? >> awesome. >> michael: i hear tonight on "the young turks" you have a get. >> i do linda, kenny boden. oh, right, you as well. >> michael: yes. >> yes i will have you on and i need your expertise because i

need to talk about how kelly ioda is taking on water. i'll be here all week. she is in trouble. turns out vote against background checks disastrous idea. and ellis to elephant the poor schmuck intern that newt gingrich would have dress up as an elephant at his events, turns out he is a cyber stocker. it's crazy. >> michael: great story, cenk. we'll tease that story as well but i'm sure we'll go a little deeper into the story. that is going to be a great show at the top of the hour. we all know that politicians are fascinated by the all-mighty dollar and today they got to oh and ah over the brand new $100 bill. a redesigned hundo will be in

production. it has a bell image on the back that changes from copper to green when tilted. very cool stuff, i guess. and now as cenk mentioned a former intern for the romney presidential campaign was arrested and charged with cyber stalking and internet contortion. he anonymously contacted 15 women via text message saying he obtained nude photos of them. and threatened to send the photos to their parents and friends, unless they send over more nude parties. here he is hobnobbing with gop celebrities like scott walker paul ryan, and of course mitt romney right there. but best of all he worked for newt gingrich and volunteered to dress up as ellis the elephant

the character from callista gingrich's children's book. that's today's republican party, folks. everyone congratulations. today is your lucky day if you were waiting for south carolina's congressional race between mark sanford and elizabeth colbert-busch to get more bizarre. so just calm down brett ehrlich is talking. >> mark sanford, statesman, candidate, hiker of appalachian trail. is trailing his congressional opponent in the polls, and when you are trailing someone in the polls, you have two options. one, challenge them to a face-to-face debate and tear and scratch until you have lowered them to your level. or two hire aliens to invade the

earth. well mark sanford doesn't know any aliens but elizabeth colbert-busch did not want to debate him. so he tweeted this. a photo of him next to a poster of nancy pelosi. if you are going to debate a cardboard cutout at least have the decency to cut it out and prop it up as opposed to have your staffer stand behind it. there's a new worst job in politics, so you are of the hook, john boehner's spray tan guy. also use a bad picture of your opponent. not as one as smoking hot as nancy pelosi in this tantalizing pant suit. call me. and finally, and perhaps most importantly, how much can you win a debate like this?

because no matter what you say, you are still the guy who shelled out 50 bucks at kinko's for something that is really not that funny which if you are going to go for that at least go for this. [ laughter ] >> i'm done talking now. ♪ >> michael: and one quick item before we go tonight. this touching photo, that's jeff bowman in the red sox shirt handing a gift to sidney corkran. it seems that everybody can feel. have a wonderful night everyone. see you on the "young turks."

[ ♪ theme music ♪ ] >> welcome to "the young turks." we have bill o'reilly we'll have a little fun with him. and coming up in just a little bit, jesus in for paul ryan, newt gringrich ends up being a cyberstalker asking for nudie pictures who used to dress up as an elephant. and then in a lot of trouble because of her gun vote and conspiracy theories on the boston